Monday, August 09, 2010

Jerry Jones and Emmitt Smith have made tremendous contribution to the Dallas Cowboys franchise, and to many people beyond. However, both Jerry and Emmitt are insufferable. It's not the worst trait in the world, but it is trying for the rest of us.

When I have such a feeling about another person, it's usually b/c I share the irritating trait with the other person, and therefore clearly recognize a trait which I detest in myself. Yuck.

Therefore, as I watched Emmitt's Hall of Fame induction, I remembered: I am insufferable, and cannot stand to listen to myself any more. So, blog vacation. Thank goodness.

If you read this blog: thank you for your friendship. You have my appreciation and love.

Saturday, August 07, 2010

They lie. That is almost all they do anymore. They lie in their reportage and then they rub salt into those wounds by lying about the reasons for their reporting decisions.

They all lie, and all from the same script of the same lies.

They lie to your ... face and then warble about their "integrity" and "professionalism," and how all their "experience" and "schooling" has dictated that only they know which stories are important. (Curiously, a frightening high percentage of "important" stories directly advance the interests of the progressive movement.)

They lie, and they lie, and they lie, and then they demand your respect and appreciation for their lies.

Cuban only purchased the $2M in debt so he could gain access to the financial records of the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars. Cuban first looked at purchasing the Rangers in 2009, but believed Hicks had included undesirable non Rangers related debt into his demands. This was a deal breaker for Cuban.

In mid July 2010, Cuban learned that the bankruptcy process could eliminate the undesirable non Rangers related debts from the deal. This reignited Cuban's interest in owning the team. However, with Cuban having his own money tied up in various investments, and having only a few weeks in which to raise capital for the potential acquisition, the Cuban and Crane partnership was unable to raise more than $600M with which to bid for the team.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

According to Cuban's account, and I've no reason to disbelieve him: Cuban fully intended to purchase the team, and was not acting from any nefarious secret strategy or motive.

Cuban's participation might have been the best thing which could have happened to the Rangers franchise. Here's why: the creditors believed a better price was out there, wanted to force an auction, and - absent an auction - apparently would have been able to tie up the sale of the franchise for years --- through 2012? 2014? 2016? Crazier things have happened. The creditors have the money both to pay for lawyers and to wait for resolution.

However, because Mark Cuban jumped in: an auction which satisfied the creditors' demand actually did happen, and now the team ownership will pass to the Greenberg/Ryan group within 10 days.

Cuban jumping in did cost the franchise an additional $85M. However, an additional $85M cost is preferable to having the franchise be operated by MLB through the 2015 season (and this is especially true b/c the Rangers will be serious World Series contenders during most or all of those seasons. Such likely would not have been the case if MLB had run the Rangers for 5 or so consecutive seasons.) Because I believe either Cuban's or Greenberg's ownership would have been excellent, therefore Cuban's jumping into the fray was the best thing which could possibly have happened.

Cuban is being portrayed, in many places in DFW, as the villain. In actuality, Cuban was the savior. If Chuck Greenberg did not now have to move his family into a trailer park, I'm sure Chuck would've sent Mark Cuban a bottle of champagne as a thank you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Funniest Cuban quote in his blogpost:

What I have learned in 11 years in the sports business is that the dumbest guys in the room are always the media guys.

The effects of incompetence build up. With the Left in power and determined to make the most of their chance they’ve tied down the circuit breakers. All at once. Health Care, Cap and Trade, Disarmament, Withdrawal from the Middle East, Cancellation of Wasteful Space Programs, Cancellation of the War on Terror, Open Borders, Gays in the Military, the Stimulus. They’re like a kid in a candy store whose exploits are silently abetted by people like Journolist. Pig away, comrades. Because nothing bad was ever going to happen, right?

“The terrible ‘ifs’ accumulate”. If the Administration had diddled with only a bit at a time the entire system could regain it’s balance before it was tripped up again by the Hope and Change boys in Washington. But no. They removed every support all at once and watched in astonishment — an astonishment that was itself astonishing — while jobs sank, the economy tanks, North Korea flexed its muscles and while Julian Assange made a monkey of them all. They watched their political support vanish, watched respect evaporate and still they doubled down.

And they’re doubling down again on the weakest of possible grounds and on the most irrelevant of issues. Friggin cap ‘n trade. What distinguishes this administration is the sheer inability to pick and choose priorities. They are policy Flatlanders. There is no terrain in their moral universe but the towering mountain of ego.

Asked what it means that voters in Missouri would vote against the federal mandate, Gibbs said: “Nothing.”

As I wrote last Saturday:

…[Obama] ignores the wishes of the American people, something neither FDR nor Clinton would ever do…Obama sees the public as his enemy, a stumbling block that he needs to get around if he is ever to reach his goals. For Obama, the public is an entity to deceive and manipulate if possible, and he regards it contemptuously rather than respectfully. He no longer needs to inspire people. He just needs to exercise power over them.

And the despicable Gibbs is the perfect mouthpiece for that sentiment.

The auction process cost Greenberg/Ryan an additional $83M in order to purchase the team. Their original winning bid, months ago, was $502M. Final winning bid (including assumption of $200ish Million of existing Rangers' debt) is $585M.

Note: throughout the day, opposing attorneys have not been shy about directing bitter profanity at each other. This bitter contest would make a good book or movie. Re the tweets: start at the bottom and work up...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update 3:

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Update: More tweets (start at bottom and work up)

mcuban Congrats chuck and nolan. Go Rangers !

aandro Chuck Greenberg: it was a lot of money but we're still going after Cliff Lee.

Wednesday, August 04, 2010

Any day you can put up photos of Gina Carano (in red), and Kyra Gracie (in workout gear) is a good day.

Kickboxing Class:

it was me + 16 women + a woman instructor.

The woman instructor taught mostly exercise, plus a couple of self-defense moves, plus some inspiration to the students - including exhortation to really give it to the imaginary persons we were punching and kicking. We practiced various punches, kicks, throwing elbows, and also driving the palm of the hand through someone's nose. That palm of the hand thing can kill somebody pretty easily.

Uncomfortable. I do not wish to practice killing people with the palm of my hand. Plus, I am a big man. If I really throw myself into punching the imaginary person; if I really throw myself into deploying the palm of my hand into the underside of an imaginary person's nose: I would make a vicious and scary looking sight. I didn't come here to be a vicious and scary looking sight. I just came here to exercise.

I will not be going back to this class. Plus, I think this was instructor malpractice: the women in the class were not as strong or as expert as Gina Carano, and the instructor had no business building their confidence in their ability to prevail in a fight against a man. A self-defense class is one thing: it would discuss strategy and situational awareness; it would carefully practice what to do when. A woman can effectively defend herself in the right situations, and a true self-defense class will discuss what are the right situations to take such action. Conversely, our kickboxing instructor was taking a chance on creating foolish confidence amongst her students.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you are a woman, and you are worried about security in your home, do this:

1. Inspect your home and take common sense security precautions: outside lights, good locks, safe doors and windows, other smart protection.

2. Get a dog, and then train the dog. Then get a second dog and train that dog.

3. Pepper spray.

4. Purchase a gun, and learn to use it. Take a class.

5. If you still want more, investigate an alarm.

6. If you still want more, take a true self-defense class.

7. If you still want more, hire the security service.8. If you still want more, move to a gated community.

Tuesday, August 03, 2010

Update: Cuban bowed out of the bidding for the Rangers at the $600M level, and therefore Greenberg/Ryan will own the team as soon as MLB approves.

I made a mistake in the article below. I did not know that Cuban had only purchased $2M of Tom Hicks debt. Therefore, Cuban obviously paid as much or more ... in legal fees ... as he gained in profit from the sale price being raised by $85M. Cuban explains his side of the entire sale process at Blog Maverick. He only purchased the $2M in debt so he could gain access to the financial records of the Texas Rangers and the Dallas Stars. He first looked at purchasing the Rangers in 2009, but believed Hicks had included undesirable non Rangers related debt into his demands. This was a deal breaker for Cuban. In mid July 2010, Cuban learned that the bankruptcy process could eliminate the undesirable non Rangers related debts from the deal. This reignited Cuban's interest in owning the team. However, with Cuban having his own money tied up in various investments, and having only a few weeks in which to raise capital for the potential acquisition, the Cuban and Crane partnership was unable to raise more than $600M with which to bid for the team.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here's why: in 2009, Cuban bought some of the discounted Tom Hicks debt. Therefore, in thrusting himself into the bidding for the Rangers, Cuban's three possible outcomes are all wins:

1. Cuban loses the bidding.

Consider: by entering the bidding, Cuban has driven up the sale price of the Rangers by ... $50M? ... $100M? ... $200M? Therefore, Mark Cuban the creditor thus reaps a bigger return on his purchase of Tom Hicks' debt. Outcome: win for Cuban, triggered by Cuban shrewdly and aggressively jumping himself into the bidding process.

Note that Cuban could only be aggressive b/c Cuban is an expert on owning a professional sports franchise. Other creditors, due to their corporate ignorance of what it takes to be a successful professional owner, therefore could not trust their ability to put a proper value on the Rangers franchise, and therefore could not afford to be as aggressive as Mark Cuban.

No one seems to consider that Cuban could be bidding in order to drive up the price, and therefore in order to drive up the profit on his 2009 purchase of debt. There's no possible way to know, until tomorrow, what Cuban's true motives are. However, this is a logical motive which everyone in media seems to be overlooking.

2. Cuban wins the bidding, then gets his proposed ownership approved by MLB.

Win. Cuban now gets to own a franchise, i.e. do something at which he is expert. Further, Cuban eventually gets to use Texas Rangers games as programming for his HDTV Channel. If that happens, the Rangers' placement as prime tenants on HDTV would create wider appeal for the Rangers franchise: would thus increase the profits of and the value of the franchise. Add in that the Rangers are about to contend for World Series titles every year for the next decade, and HDTV exposure could result in the Rangers gaining a national audience, a la the Atlanta Braves in the early days of TBS. Mark Cuban's ownership might be the very best thing which could happen for the franchise.

Something else: Mark Cuban knows how to fill a venue to the brim with fans; knows how to create excitement around a franchise. Cuban is a born marketer.

3. Cuban wins the bidding, then gets denied by MLB

Outcome: probable win. In this scenario, if MLB awards the franchise to, for instance, Greenburg/Ryan, then I speculate MLB will insist that Greenburg/Ryan pay a price which is much higher than even the $540M which Greenburg/Ryan agreed to last week, and which was significantly more than the $502M which Greenburg/Ryan used as their bid over the last months. Cuban the creditor, even if he gets denied by MLB, still wins.

Separate note:

Nolan Ryan is speculated to be gone if Cuban wins. However: what else can Nolan Ryan say? If Cuban wins: Ryan may be gone, or Ryan may be interested in working with Cuban. No one knows. We do know that Ryan, at this moment, cannot possibly give any indication that he would be willing to work with Mark Cuban.

Realistically, anyone handicapping this issue would say that Mark Cuban and Nolan Ryan are oil and water. Ryan, however, can surprise. Once upon a time, Ryan was a big booster of pitching coach Tom House' unorthodox teaching techniques. No one, at the time, would have expected the meat and potatoes Ryan to endorse House' fruit and nuts methods.

As for Cuban, I expect him to be quite flexible re working with Ryan. Cuban is shrewd and adaptable. Cuban's mistakes are mistakes of enthusiasm. Cuban's are not mistakes of either intractability, or of I know better arrogance. Cuban's decision making process is shrewd and well considered. If Cuban seems hasty, it is often b/c - once he does make a decision - Cuban has the money and the confidence to immediately pull the trigger and go for it. Other organizations, both in sports and out of sports, usually take longer to implement actions which require big money and big risk.

Monday, August 02, 2010

“So when my husband and I came to America, we heard a story about conservatives. We heard that these conservatives are a really really weird lot. Nutjobs, basically. And these conservatives, they’re obsessed with sex. They’re obsessed with sex and they’re obsessed with what you’re doing in your bedroom. It’s all they think about. They’re just constantly worrying about what you’re up to in your bedroom.

But you know something? Since we’ve moved here, we haven’t found that. But what we have found is that liberals, are in every other room in your house. They’re in the fridge. They’re in your car. They’re in your air miles. They’re in your clothes. They’re in your hair. They’re in your cleaning products, and your washing machine and the refrigerator. They’re all over the place! And they’re in your light bulb! And I want to say them .. This is America! Get out of my light bulb!"